Boise State football adds tight end to 2014 recruiting class

Tight end Dimitri Flowers of San Antonio first thought of playing football for the Boise State Broncos in middle school while watching them play on that blue field.

The class of 2014 recruit committed to the Broncos on Saturday. He also received scholarship offers from Colorado, Houston and Nevada, he said.

“I’ve wanted to go to Boise for a long time,” he said. “As soon as it happened, I knew I wanted to go there.”

Flowers (6-foot-3, 225 pounds) was so sure that he committed without ever visiting Idaho. He’ll visit later this month.

He plays at Churchill High, where he’s a tight end, wide receiver, running back and quarterback on offense, a safety on defense and a kick returner on special teams.

His strength, he said, is “just my athleticism and my versatility.”

Flowers is the son of Erik Flowers, a defensive end/linebacker who was a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2000 out of Arizona State. Father and son played for Glenn Hill, who is the head coach at Churchill.

“I’ve known Dimitri since he was born,” Hill said. “… Dimitri is an outstanding player but he’s also an outstanding young man. It’s a lot more fun for me to coach those who are just as good as people — that’s what Boise State is looking for. The questions coach (Chris) Petersen was asking didn’t have anything to do with his playing. The questions they asked me were what kind of person he is, will he fit into our program. It was very impressive. And that’s what I was able to tell his father — it sounds like the type of place you’d want your kid to be. I’ve talked to a lot of college coaches in my career. I was very impressed with the questions the Boise State coaches asked me.”

Flowers will be a third-year starter for Churchill this season. The flow of college coaches through the team’s practices has increased this year because of him, Hill said.

Flowers won’t play much on defense, but he’ll play every offensive skill position.

“It’s our job to try to get the ball to the guys that can make plays,” Hill said. “You have to do it a number of ways.”

Flowers is an unusual kick returner with his size but Hill said he showed his playmaking ability on a 70-yard punt return in a two-point game last season.

“When he caught the ball, there were seven of our opponents around him, in close proximity to making a tackle,” Hill said. “He wasn’t touched.”

Flowers was an All-Area wide receiver. He caught 52 passes for 901 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed 63 times for 498 yards and eight touchdowns despite missing two games with a broken arm.

Worth noting: Boise State tight ends coach Scott Huff began recruiting the San Antonio area with the class of 2014. Previously, the Broncos had focused their Texas efforts on Dallas and Houston. They did sign offensive lineman Andrew Tercek out of San Antonio this year but they didn’t have a coach assigned to the area.

“There are a lot of good players around this area,” he said. “It’s certainly worth your time.”

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Houston on Monday confirmed the transfer of former Boise State safety Lee Hightower. He began classes Monday and is on scholarship. Under NCAA transfer rules, Hightower will redshirt this season and have two years of eligibility remaining.

He was a starting safety at Boise State for the first seven games last year. He was suspended for the rest of the season and eventually suspended from the university.